On the
concluding day of Vasanthothsavam Sri Parthasarathi Emperuman has purappadu to
Besant Road – Vasudevapuram and Nammalwar Street !!
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My favourite Srinivasan Venkatraghavan scored a 50 and hoisted Peter Petherick for a Six. Petherick had just taken a hat-trick on debut at Pakistan and sixers were rare to come by in any test – 50 years ago !!
Life has changed –
yesterday at Mullanpur - Maharaja Yadavindra Singh International Cricket
Stadium, a 15 year old kid was the cynosure of all eyes – in almost a week – he has missed
century 3 times and a knock of 96 off 47 with 8 fours and 7 sixers was perhaps his
slower one. Vaibhav Sooryavanshi is a
free-spirited prodigy, yet curbed some
of his natural instincts, dug deep, and problem-solved, waiting to hit his slowest half-century, though it still
only took him 31 balls. He spent almost 18 overs at the crease, the deepest he
has gone into a T20 innings. His season
ended with 776 runs at a strike rate of 237.30.
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This is a post about a Nonagenarian who is closing on a Century - the Six hit of Venkat referred to the 3rd Test at Chennai in Nov 1976 against the visiting New Zealand and this respectable Triplicanite who lived early in Thavana Uthsav bungalow and now in Nammalwar Street, off Besant Road, Triplicane made his debut.
Sri KB Ramaswamy was born on 20th Feb 1929, started his International Umpiring career at Chepauk in 1976 – stood in 8 Test matches between 1976-1983 and also officiated in two ODI games in 1982 (incidentally India winning both – Krishnamachari Srikkanth hitting 92 in one !)
Like most Triplicanites, he studied in the famous ‘The Hindu High School’ and Loyola college and naturally attracted to Cricket climbed the ladder becoming a Ranji Umpire and later an International Umpire. He officiated in the high profile Delhi v Bombay (Bedi v Gavaskar) Ranji final, the Irani Trophy and 8 test matches at a time when matches were to less and being at the centre was very tough.
Kondathur Bashyam Ramaswamy’s forefathers hailed from a small village near Chengalpattu, joined British firm Best & Crompton Engineering in the accounts division as an assistant clerk in the late 1940s. While he played a bit of league cricket for Crombest, he did not make a big mark as a player and hence moved into Umpiring and passed the examination in the 1950s. At a fee of Rs. 2 per day, he began umpiring lower division league matches in Madras and then over a period of time graduated to the first division.
Mr Prabhu (himself an Umpire and regular blogger) [https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2022/12/kb-ramaswamy-test-umpire.html] records that it was an emergency call in 19786. Umpire Sharma could not make it from Delhi. After the first day’s play was washed out, Gothaskar fell ill on the 2nd morning and KBR was called to officiate in a match that had Sunil Gavaskar, Gundappa Vishwanath, Bishan Bedi, Venkat, Chandra among others in Indian side – the big names in Kiwi being Glenn Turner, John Parker, Geoff Howarth, Lance Cairns and .. Richard Hadlee. In 1978 he officiated in couple of matches when West Indies under Alwin Kalicharran toured India.
In a test at Bengalure
he no balled fiery Rodney Hogg for overstepping multiple times and an annoyed
Hogg kicked the stumps – KBR stood firm, and at his insistence Captain Kim
Hughes made the bowler rearrange. In
1983 at Ahmedabad test – Clive Lloyd fearing a loss abused Umpires KBR and
Hanumatha Rao.
On May 25, 2026 – day
7 of Vasanthothsavam – Sri Parthasarathi Perumal had purappadu in kuthirai
vahanam, after Vasantha uthsava bungalow, had purappadu through Besant road,
visiting Vasudevapuram and Nammalwar street – and this man at 97 physically
strong prayed Emperuman and received honours.
Spoke a couple of words to him at that time and next day saw him at
temple too - a man who had officiated in
matches involving biggest of International players – Clive Lloyd, Viv Richards,
Malcolm Marshall, Imran Khan, Kim Hughes
and more !!
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Statistically, Bishansingh Bedi was the captain at Chepauk. Glenn Turner was the Captain for the visitors. It was Test no. 787 – a 6 day match between 26th Nov to 2nd Dec 1976. On the first day, no play was possible due to rain and 29th Nov was the scheduled rest day. That match is well remembered for the good performance by gentleman and most intelligent - Srinivasan Venkatraghavan. From 181/7 India went on to make 298 thanks to a fluent 64 by Venkat who hit 4 boundaries and a six. Gundappa Vishwanath made 87 like the many good innings he had played at Chepauk and Kirmani made 44.
There was some resistance from Glenn Turner and Mark Burgess but Kiwis were bundled for 140 with Bedi taking 5 for 48; Chandra 3 for 28 & Karsan Ghavri 2 for 32. India batted on the 5th day scored slowly making 201 for 5 with contributions from Gavaskar, Mohinder and Brijesh Patel. Richard Hadlee who summitted greater heights later in his career was involved in an unsavoury incident of throwing the ball at the square-leg umpire after heated argument when an appeal for hit wicket against Gaekwad was turned down. Bedi declared overnight and NZ succumbed without much fight scoring 143 with Bedi taking 4 for 22 and Chandra 3 for 64.
Interesting ! my respects to Triplicane jewel Mr KB Ramaswamy – wish we are able to attend and celebrate his 100 in a grand manner sooner.
30.5.2026
